Dr Paul Allen

Charlie opened the letter and immediately realized that there had been a mistake. It was an invitation to preach at a famous London church with a view to becoming their pastor. Obviously, this was an error for several reasons. No one in the cultured city of London would have considered him to be a pastor in the real sense of the word. Pastors in London were highly educated, socially sophisticated, culturally sensitive, well-dressed, well-groomed, and well-mannered. Charlie was relatively uneducated, had no theological background, had neither formal nor informal training as a preacher, and on top of all this, he was only 19 years old. So, he wrote to his would-be hosts to clarify the probably mistaken identity. But remarkably the reply came back that no mistake had been made. He caught the train to London. The night before his sermon he met some young men at his hotel who told him of the mighty eloquence of the famous London preachers, which intimidated young Charlie even

“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” ( Acts 8:4 ) Every believer has been called to preach God’s Word, not just pastors of churches. When Christ gave the Great Commission to “preach the gospel to every creature” ( Mark 16:15 ), it was clear that this could be accomplished only if every Christian would actually preach the gospel! This was practiced first by the members of the church at Jerusalem. Then, when the believers were “all scattered abroad . . . except the apostles” ( Acts 8:1 ), these “laymen” went everywhere preaching the Word. One of the “deacons” selected to relieve the apostles of the “business” affairs of the church was Philip, and he “went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them” ( Acts 8:5 ), speaking to great crowds and winning many to Christ. Then shortly afterward, the Lord called him down to Gaza where he met an Ethiopian eunuch, and he “preached unto him Jesus” ( Acts 8:35 ). This teaches plainly th